The Storm’s minor premiership celebrations have been rocked by a major injury blow after coach Craig Bellamy revealed Cameron Munster and Josh Addo-Carr are in doubt for the first week of finals.
Addo-Carr and Munster were nowhere to be seen tonight against the Sharks as the superstar duo were presumed to be rested ahead of a big month of post-season football ahead.
While the reigning champions were able to move away with their fifth minor premiership thanks to a sensational hat-trick from Ryan Papenhuyzen in a 28-16 win, after the match Bellamy revealed there was more behind Munster and Addo-Carr’s no shows at Cbus Stadium.
“Cameron Munster has a little problem with his knee at the moment,” Bellamy said in his post-match press conference.
“We think he will be OK, but we haven’t really looked at tonight either.
“There was a couple of bumps and bruises with Tui (Kamikamica) and Brandon (Smith) coming off early.
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“I would have preferred them to stay out there a bit longer, but they had bumps and we thought the best thing was to leave them off and hopefully they will be right for next week.
“I don’t think we will be at full strength next week. There might be one or two out.
“With Josh (Addo-Carr) he will be touch and go I think.”
Bellamy doubled down on the sentiment speaking to Nine’s post-match coverage.
“I think Munster is probably a better chance than Josh at the moment,” he added.
“Obviously having said that we’d like them both to be there, but if they’re not, so be it. We’ll see how the week goes and hopefully they’ll improve quickly.”
Turning an already tricky predicament into a headache, Storm enforcers Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Justin Olam were placed on report and will sweat on the Match Review Committee in the coming days.
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